We don't need treadle pump technology to end starvation

OPINION

By Simon J Mone

Millions of Ugandans are currently suffering the worse form of deprivation of a basic need (food) in the recent years. The North and East have been hardest hit.

The humiliating point is to see local people feeding on termites (Okok in some dialects), to survive for the day. Without knowing what the next day holds, this ranks among the lowest moments of this hunger-ravaged season.

Against this background therefore, we cannot confidently stake claim to be an agricultural country anymore.

At a time when we witness humanity being humiliated to this extent, it is that degrading. To see us, arms open, trying to survive one day at a time.

That some food markets in Uganda are now vending food imports from neighbouring Kenya clearly amplifies how much stanza three of our national anthem has been let down. It befits this question; where are Uganda's farmers of old? If the current starvation continues, we are likely to see many deaths from starvation.

A lot of factors now combine to explain this mess. First, it is a fact that long dry periods have worked hard to bring us this low. We can't dig. And grow enough food to meet our minimum day-to-day nutritional needs.

The rain returned late. And second, even if there was rain in some areas of the county, the most popular crop, maize has been hit hardest by army worms. And cassava also suffered from pest.

We should get on top of the challenge. If not, children will face malnutrition and their early years will spoil their lifetime potential. Now government and humanitarian aid agencies have to dig deep inside their pockets to find emergency food relief. As we ponder sustainable solution to large scale famine in our country, which we need instantly.

To prevent the food security problems from escalating, immediate livelihood support in mainly agriculture must form part of the hunger response. Start to encourage people to do sustainable agriculture. For now, in this bad period as a matter of urgency, we can provide vegetable seeds that can grow quickly. This can immediately rescue us from starvation.

Vegetables can be grown in kitchen gardens. Also, encourage the use of fertilizers to improve the soil fertility. On top of this, there must be early spraying to ensure that crops are not attacked by pests and diseases. Every household should have simple irrigation techniques to ensure that crops once germinated do not dry.

The president has already demonstrated a simple way how this works. And it is suitable for a kitchen garden.

So we actually do not require some treadle pump technology irrigation to avert this starvation. These are easy and practical measures that we can deploy to check drought, pest and diseases. But as we are still stuck in tying to look for answers, the government has started up a good programme.

It is distributing emergency food items to starving families. While this is a good hunger emergency response, let us not forget that it is not sustainable.

Government cannot do it always for every household. We still have to find long-term solutions. There is a general feeling that as part of the solution, government can go as far as providing households with kitties that can enhance these quick-growing crops. It should be crops that grow in a few weeks, so food is available and people will not have to eat termites.

Also for sustainability, households need to have rainwater storage facilities to supplement the household kits. Then, encourage planting drought resistant crops.

Therefore, making our food systems more sustainable requires important but simple modification to our cultivation practices. So we can build resilience to our livelihoods. It must start now.

The writer is a civil engineer